(Closed) Our budget is too small :(

Does anyone feel like this? I feel like with our ‘little’ budget, it’s going to look so cheap. I look at all the pictures of weddings and everything is GORGEOUS! Our venue is on a covered deck and overlooks the water, and it’s not the *prettiest* but it was in our budget and prettier than some of the others we looked in to (they have top floor which is really nice, but our guest count was too small!).

At all the bridal expos I go to everyone has these extravagant plans and it’s going to look gorgeous! I feel like we may as well just elope because the we’re going to put all this money into a wedding that won’t even be that nice.

I partially think the stress is just getting to me, and it will all come together in the end.. but what if it doesn’t? What if it does look tacky and cheap?! 🙁

I am a huge fan of simplicity and personal touch. Any wedding can be beautiful at any budget.

Some weddings can cost a lot and be very extravagant, but they can also be cold and feel fake. Small weddings can be very lovely and intimate 🙂

Our wedding is somewhat small. Just concetrate on the details and on the ambiance you will create. Have fun through the process and enjoy it. Don’t let possibilities that are out of reach bother you … concetrate on what you have and the beauty of it. Own it 🙂

@eliseemma: Stop going to bridal expos. I went to one years ago and realized that they are not friendly to a budget bride. Go to blog sites like Broke Ass Bride and OffBeat Bride and Budget Bride to see real budget weddings that look great and don’t cost a fortune. Trust me, the bridal industry wants you to think that you must spend $20K or more on a wedding when in the real world many more brides get married for well under $10K. My budget is $5K and I had to ban the Knot, bridal expos, and bridal magazines because they were suggesting details and vendors that were completely unrealistic for my budget.

P.S. My first wedding was $8K. We had a Saturday night plated dinner for 60 with a limited open bar and live music. Everyone had a great time and even though we ultimately got divorced everyone still talks about how much fun our casual, budget wedding was.

@beachbride1216: Our budget is 14k, excluding the honeymoon- and I feel like it is such a small budget. When we were interviewing for a day of coordinator (which we ended up cutting out of the budget), one actually said “That’s your budget? You won’t get anything nice in this area for that.” That comment has kind of stuck with me… I am planning on doing a lot of DIY’s, but I’m really not that creative. So I’m praying they all come out looking fine. But, you are right- all the magazines and the episodes of Four Weddings are killing me! lol

We chose to keep our budget on the smaller side so that we could have a ‘big’ honeymoon. Rather than inviting every person we’ve ever said hello to, friends of friends of relatives and distant relatives we’ve never met or only spoke to once or twice, we decided to have a small, intimate wedding. It will be all of our closest friends and relatives. Those who aren’t invited have been extremely understanding and most have said, “thats smart! If I could do it again I would skip the big wedding and put it toward a house or dream vacation.”

By keeping it small we are saving a ton of money and are able to not only have our dream honeymoon, but we can also put more into the small amount of things we do need. I am basically getting every single detail that I want only because we are providing everything for fewer people.

Also, maybe look into having your wedding on a day other than Saturday. At first I was against having it on any other day. Then I fell in love with a venue, but we didn’t meet their minimum head count for a Saturday wedding. Well… we didn’t meet their minimum for a Friday or Sunday either, so we are having it on a Thursday!! I probably wouldn’t recommend a Thursday just because it can be inconvient for a lot of guests, but I would definitely consider a Friday or Sunday if I were you. The discount from the venue is substantial, plus we are getting amazing deals from our DJ, photographer, florist and lighting company! We are having a wedding on a tiny budget, but it will not look it at all! It is definitely doable.

Just invite less people. I’m spending 7k in 50 people. It’s tight, but the food is AMAZING (I’d rather die than feed my guests mediocre food!), the venue doesn’t need much decor and I got a non wedding dress off the rack. It can be done.

I went to 2 weddings last summer. The first one had to have been $100,000 (not exaggerating!) and it was very stressful, hot, and a long day and over 300 people were there. I don’t remember most of it because it was over 12 hours with 2 ceremonies and 2 receptions and a 5-6 hour gap between the ceremonies and main reception.

The second wedding was a weekend later, their budget was probably around $5,000-$8,000, and it was SO much fun!! There were no extravagent details, it was a small (I’d say around 60 people maybe?) wedding and felt very intimate and beautiul. I much preferred this wedding because it was not so high strung and it was very laid back.

My wedding, we are trying to keep it under $10K (working so far!) and we won’t have much intricate details, just some personal touches here and there. Hope this gave you some help!

I think you should read this article. It is more geared towards wedding photographers but it is a good welcome back to reality check I think. Weddings shouldn’t be about magazine spreads, it should be about two people in love and the raw emotions that stem from that.

yes and the boards dont help!!! hahaha, but just keep in mind every wedding is different and it’s all about the two of you. It’s ONE DAY-do what you can to have fun but dont go overboard. Most of these weddings could instead have afforded a nice down payment on a house or a new car, etc. it’s all a matter of perspective. Find ways to make it fun and keep on target, no reason to go overboard and regret it 🙂

Unique details and personal touches always win. Even if you aren’t super crafty, there are a lot of DIY resources at your disposal. You’d be surprised how little skill a lot of DIY stuff requires- just a lot of time and effort. And this is coming from the least crafty person on the planet.

Have you budgeted for a good photographer? I firmly believe that the right photographer can make virtually any venue look beautiful and artistic in your photos- which, other than the marriage itself, is really the only thing that is left after the day.

I could have written this post in the months before my wedding. We got married on just over $1000 dollars (this was a wedding for 60 guests, including a full meal). I was totally scared that our wedding would be a cheap-looking, tacky disaster. I shouldn’t have worried…everything was beautiful and we got so many compliments. Yours will be just the same. Trust yourself!

I was also told I have a “low” budget for my area (about 12k), and what’s helped for me is thinking outside the box with vendors. I got sticker shock when I started researching wedding caterers, but then a wise friend told me that vendors specifically labeled as “wedding vendors” tend to charge higher premiums. Eventually, I started researching local food trucks and realized many of them cater weddings at a significantly cheaper cost. Also DIY decor projects will free up cash for other vendors. Rather than spend $1k for a florist, I’m spending about $300 to make my own paper flower centerpieces and bouquets.